Sunday, April 1, 2018

THE URGE

THE
URGE TO WRITE

I know I’m not the only one who has ever been afflicted
with this urge, but it seems to intensify as I age. It’s as if I must get the
ideas that are constantly streaming into my head down on paper before they fade
away like the images of a dream, like crystals of hoar frost melting on a sunny
February morning.

The joy of life rises in my consciousness, like the
waters of an artesian fountain and cannot be suppressed. It is a blessing and a
curse. I cannot wait for money or the opportunity for my thoughts to be
published, so I am thankful that I can post them here, with the hope that they
will be gathered in the future and recorded in a more permanent way. They are
like the tracks of a pre-historic creature in a sand dune of mud bank of his
time, only to be buried in layers deposited over the ages, and perhaps thus preserved
to be uncovered at some future date. When uncovered, will they be deemed meaningful,
or considered as chaff to be scattered in the wind? Hopefully, some future soul
will discover them, recognize them as the rare treasures I believe them to be, and
be inspired by them. In that way, if in no other, I will live again.

To what do I attribute my exuberant verbosity? Perhaps
there is a clue in my ancestry. My ancestral origins are varied and diverse: In
the DNA of my eight great-grand-parents I find, in no particular order: traces
of Scot, English, Irish, Scandinavian, German, Jewish, Middle-Eastern, and North
African blood. Going back four more generations, there are also traces of DNA
from Greece, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. Perhaps I got the best luck of
the draw from all these ancestors and cultures. Perhaps this diversity is the
reason I am blessed with insights that may escape the notice of most people. I
think there may be a correlation between this diversity of heritage and the
diversity of my thought, and even my IQ.

Everyone should honor their parents, grandparents and all
their ancestors back as far as memory and science can recall. There will be
individuals of whom you can be proud, there will be mediocre work-a-day folks,
and there will be some you’d rather not know about. But there is wisdom in a
statement posted by someone on Face Book recently. They said: “I’ve checked my
DNA, and guess what? I’m a child of God!”